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Question 1 1. An Act of Parliament is a law that’s been made by Parliament, they are otherwise known as legislation, or a statute. The laws that are made are discussed and passed by the House of Commons as well as the House of Lords. Other sources as shown in block 1 include party manifestos, Royal Commissions or Private Members Bill. 2. Delegated Legislation is a law made by another party or body that Parliament has passed on to the right authority. The said required authority is usually given by Parliament an enabling act! An example of delegated legislation is the use now of criminal cautions under the Criminal Justice Act. 3. The devolved legislatures are the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly and how they work with our parliament. All of the above in a referendum over 10years ago decided to devolve from Westminster. This means that each jurisdiction has their own law making powers. 4. Precedent is what forms our basis for common law. Basically put if legal principle is decided upon in a case then it should be followed in cases that are similar. This means that if similar cases arise a judge should follow the legal principle of the previous case. 5. Common law represents the law of the courts, allowing the decision of the court only to find the principles made by previous court decisions. Common law unlike civil law doesn’t originate from text but is better described as a customary law or ‘tradition expressed in action. 6. European Union Law operates alongside the EU member states. It’s a body of laws, and court judgments. Question 2 Common Law has been in effect in England for hundreds of years. It was during Henry II reign that his court began to specialise in legal business and started acting in a judicial capacity. The King in 1154 created a united court system that ended local control. Part of this process involved him instating a jury system. Before this system came into place it was common for disputes and criminal activity to be solved with use of what we could consider now to be torture. One example being that u had to pick up a hot rod, and if, after 3dys the hand had begun to heal you would be considered to have God on your side and not guilty would be the outcome. This involves members of the public sworn in on oath to investigate criminal activity as well as civil issues as well. The aim of the Jurors and judges was to bring common law to every member of the kingdom. Whilst the judges travelled round giving their decisions, most were written down. As the decisions continued to get recorded and published it became practice where precedents would be cited in argument in front of the courts. Henry II chose 5 members of his household to listen to the problems of the realm and deal with them accordingly. They were supervised by the King and became known as the Court of Commons plea. Eventually though the cases brought up in front of the King were separate from proceedings by the Kings council. The common law or judge made law is as important to us as laws made by Parliament, for example there is no Act of Parliament that says murder is a crime, it is common law crime that has been refined over many years. One of the main features of common law is that it represents the courts, but only by what has been said by the presented by judicial decisions. Other common characteristics of common law are trial by jury, and also the doctrine of supremacy of the law. All courts have pre-existing rules formed by different bodies. Whilst applying these rules though, they must also be interpreted, this basically means changing the generalities of the rule into specifics, and this is done to help cover situations that were not addressed when the legislation was first drafted. This means that the basis for many laws was made by the judicial system and to this day the basic legislations from back then help shape the law at is now. Question 3 Laws in this country are made by the Westminster Parliament. Parliament in England and Wales is made up of two houses, the House of Commons, and the House of Lords. The House of Commons is made up of members of Parliament that have been voted in by the people of the constituency. A general election that must be held every 5years determines which party of MPs make up the House of Commons. The House of Commons is run by the Prime Minister, the leader of the political party that has most members of Parliament. A large group of these ministers in hand selected by the Prime Minister and allocated to different roles for each department. The leaders of these departments make up the cabinet, who decide upon policy changes. The House of Lords is made up nowadays by three different types of Lord. The life peers, elected hereditary peers and Bishops. The life peers were mostly politicians who had retired, Maggie Thatcher being one of these. After joining the House of Lords she became Baroness Thatcher. Men however become Lords. The House of Lords was originally made up of the highest Law Lords and Bishops in the country, they would then pass the title on. This title was usually awarded for life, and was awarded by the Prime Minister. Most of the people given this title were people thought to be useful to law thinking and helpful to the country. The Labour government in the 90s however changed this bringing in voting to decide which members deserved there place. The main reasoning behind having Parliament is that they talk discusses and pass new laws. These are known as Acts of Parliament, or legislation. As a way of getting the public to vote for their political party many parties before General Elections bring out a Party Manifesto. This most simply put is a list of changes and reforms the party are proposing to make in the future. If a country suffers a National emergency or crisis legislation may also be passed to help. An example of this is that after the cloning of Dolly the sheep a breakthrough occurred in the cloning of humans. The Government brought in the Human Reproductive Cloning Act, which made it a criminal offence. The Royals can also give opinions on new legislations; they are usually issues that the Parliament sees fit not to deal with. The Royal Commission are a group hired by the Royal to investigate as they see fit. Recently the Royal Commission has been involved in the discussion of decriminalising cannabis. Other ways of getting legislation into Parliament are, Private Members Bill which brought forward by one MP. Before it becomes law an Act of Parliament starts as a bill. There are different types of bill including the public Bill; dealing with public matters, and a Private Bill; which affects only a minority. After being drafted and scrutinised for opinions of people affected are other MPS, it is then passed to the appropriate department and given to the relevant minster to discuss with his peers. After this it is again discussed by the ministers and new proposals are added into the bill, before it is drafted by Parliamentary draftsmen and made into a Bill. After the drafting however it must be introduced to the Houses of Lords and Commons in a first reading of it, which is the followed by the second reading and a chance for debate and thoughts on the bill. After this however a detailed reading is made by a committee. Following the decisions made by the committee a 3rd reading to give final opinions on the Bill takes place. Finally a Royal must give their approval to the bill or royal assent, and this final step makes a bill a law. This seems to be a long drawn out process but is most definitely a satisfactory process. A law must be a long thought out process and have use for all people involved. A law shouldn’t be for personal gain. Without many readings of the Bill a law could be used for ill gain or be rendered useless. Laws are in place to keep this country in working order and without the House of Lords and House of Commons the law making process could well indeed be in disarray. Bibliography – Rules Rights and Justice: An introduction to Law. The Open University Words Count- 1422